Ommegang's brewers spent several years refining their ideas of what a "perfect" tripel would be. In the original style, a Belgian tripel is a golden ale, from 8.5% to 10% ABV, with fruity flavors and aromas coming from the yeast. Tripels are simply brewed, but with great attention to detail. Ommegang Tripel Perfection goes beyond the exquisite attention to detail and adds spices to subtly enhance aromas and flavors. The result is a fine ale honoring Belgian brewing tradition, while also expanding on it in the new Ommegang tradition.

Reviews by gr0g:

Solid gold in color and a bit hazy. A prodigious head forms and lasts for ages. Very nice lacing. Yeast and spice notes are dominant on the nose. Clove, coriander, and, more subtly, some dried orange peel. Nice, bright aroma with just a subtle hint of alcohol

Malty sweet flavor with just enough hop bitterness for balance. Kind of a dull finish. Fruity and malty with some candi sugar I think. Golden raisin, white grapes, and herbal hops are what I'm getting. Full in body with alcohol warmth but no solvent-like fusel notes. Very well carbonated but soft and sudsy.

This is a really good traditional tripel that does nothing wrong. Highly recommended. (656 characters)

More User Reviews:

The flash of gold caught my eye and everything I saw about this beer made me even more excited to try it. Ommegang always brews amazing beers and when I found that this Tripel ONLY comes in this beautiful 750 mL bottle AND was capped with a champagne cork and wire rim I was hooked. The bottle artwork and style makes me want to keep this bottle after I finish it and I will. It has a well-balanced 8.9% ABV and has been fine-tuned over the better part of a decade. I will be glad to review it here.

Look-First let me say that the loud satisfying pop of the cork only led to the mounting excitement and anticipation of all that Ommegang promised to pack within. I poured only mildly vigorously and found the head grew very quickly and lingered and then settled into a medium sized head at a centimeter or two with large bubbles and fine lacing on the glass. The beer itself cascades into billowing wisps of golden yellow liquid kissed by turbulent carbonation immediately after the pour. It settles into a foggy yellow state capped with foam beckoning for a kiss.

Smell-It smells of pilsner malt and English yeast at first. I then get sweet brandy and malts based off so many aromas it is hard to pick them all out. I get pear and delicate tropical fruits like mango, passionfruit, and spiked melon. Very subtle and delicate like a humble elixir promising to pack a punch in the taste, which it does.

Taste-The malts are more present than the nose indicated. Lingering English yeast and bread at first and then immediately giving way to a cacophony of tastes. The flavor is a waltz of candied sweetness like sugarplum, bread pudding, fig, honey-buttered-bread, esters of banana, lemon zest, earthy yeast, clover, coriander, bubblegum, melon, honey, citrus peel orange, licorice, nutmeg, vanilla, ginger, and the alcohol appears late at the end and is soothing mild and refreshing. The taste has such an explosive variety of flavors that I may have missed a few, but with a list like that you truly can’t go wrong with this one. These flavors ebb and flow in wave after wave and finish a bit dry and cool lending to the mild alcohol that makes its appearance center stage and amidst the perfect levels of carbonation.

Mouthfeel-It drinks smooth and refreshing with the right levels of effervescent carbonation.

Overall-This was not just a beer, but an experience. It has so much to offer and everyone should try it. Given the legacy of this beer and the amount of time and effort that went into this variety, I think that this is a top shelf, gold medal brew that will be difficult to beat. Great job, Ommegang and keep them coming! (2,640 characters)

Appearance - This is a very bright golden orange in color with a modest head that left some good lacing. The head usually steals the show on these types of beers but here it is the liquid that grabs your attention. It is perfectly cloudy with just the right tones of color.

Smell - It's nice to get a good whiff of yeast in an American version of this style. Most of the time they are hop bombs but this one has a wonderful, powerful, raw yeast aroma. The pale malts are so rich and thick and the sugars, my goodness. This nose is just dripping (pardon the pun) with candied sugar.

Taste - The sugars are explosive at the taste; easily the sugariest (if that's a word) Tripel that I've had. The mix of super-sweet candied sugar with the rich pale malt and that wonderful yeast character is a winner for sure. I'm getting very little hops here but what I do find is leafy. This one is certainly all about the malts and sugars.

Mouthfeel - This is medium-bodied and again not heavy-handed like a lot of American versions of the style. The carbonation is a bit lacking though I must say. There's no alcohol sting but you can sense the booze.

Drinkability - This is very smooth, dare I say a bit too smooth. It should be slower to drink due to the robust carbonation typical of the style. The flavors though are incredibly rich and rewarding. (1,342 characters)

Large bottle, caged and corked, with (nice move omme) Packaged on and best before dating printed on the neck of the bottle. Pours cloudy medium apricot, lifts a Belgian appropriate near huge head, that stays and stays, going slowly to moderate frothy merainge, thick sheeting and lace. Fruity and pleasant nose of honey, flowers, pineapple, and light pepper. Easy drinking brew, the near 9% well hidden, typical Tripel flavors and sensations, light pepper, some lime, mango, more pineapple, Belgian yeasty goodness. Creamy and smooth in the mouth. Well done and welcome to a new addition to the Ommegang family of fine brews (624 characters)

Drinkability: A decent not outstanding tripel. I do appreciate the astringency and the funk in this beer. The taste is good, but I have had better from the brewery. For the price, it is worth a try once, but I cannot see myself getting this again. (579 characters)

L: Fruity nose with sour earthy notes, spice, floral, soft alcohol, citrus. S: Pours hazy peach tinted gold crowned by a big persistent 3” off white moussey head with a very fine bead. T: Fruit, spice and alcohol start the attack seasoned by pepper, very soft malts, some citrus, orange, maybe lemon mingling with peach and suggestions of pineapple. F: Very creamy and moussey in texture, medium light body. Above average to high carbonation but the carbonation is very fine and soft. O: About as good as it gets, big fruit balanced by bitterness and alcohol. (566 characters)

Taste: Like the aroma, a yeasty, spicy, and fruity Belgian Tripel taste with good notes of spice and fruits. Belgian yeast with big spice notes of coriander, clove, peppers, farmhouse funk, and licorice root. Fruit esters come through with notes of orange peel, lemon zest, white grape, banana, and green apple. Also some notes of bubblegum and candied sugar. Pale malt with notes of straw, grains, and cracker. Light backing notes of floral hops. A really good taste.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with a high level of carbonation. Nicely spicy and zesty with a drying finish. Booze is masked well.

Overall: A very good version of a Belgian Tripel. Good mix of spices and fruit esters with a nice level of carbonation. (1,379 characters)

Poured from a caged and corked 750ml into my La Fin du Monde chalice, brilliant orange golden slightly hazed huge effervescent layer of white head. Fine Belgian style lacing, between sips you just have to admire the beauty this beer has to offer. Aroma ful of tropical fruit/bananas, mangoes, and hints of pineapple. Bold spicy yeast with pale malt breadiness, and herbal hops in the background. Flavors explode with ripened banana, citrus fruit, hints of pineapple juicy fruit. Spicy yeast/hops provided nice balance to the fruit laiden sweetness. creamy finish with a touch of booze in the background. Muthfeel has welcoming warmth with the booze but a smooth juicy effervescently carbonated body. Incredibly smooth and drinkable as it warms the booze becomes much more apparent but the flavor is just as enticing. (816 characters)

(Served in a chalice) A- This beer pours a clear apricot body with an off-white head that is a bit bubbly and tiny bubbles that trail up the side of the glass. This beer gets hazier with each pour and there is a nice creamy lace that slides back down the glass after each sip. S- The dry club soda yeasty aroma has some light dried fruit notes and a light circus peanut ester with some soft spice in the finish. T- The dry yeasty apricot and white raisin flavor finishes with a soft fusel spice. There is a green note to the finish and a very light banana ester comes through when the beer opens up a bit. M- The light mouthfeel has a light creamy texture to the head and soft alcohol heat when the beer warms a bit. D- This beer has a crisp delicate flavor and a smooth quality to it. The alcohol is very well hidden and the hint of hops is nice come though at the finish. It doesn't have the perfume qualities that I like in a tripel but it is very easy to drink. (969 characters)

Served cool into a globe, TP has a hazy yellow-orange color with thick longlasting head.

Aroma is awesome with beautiful floral, spice, and yeast characteristics that are all working very well together.

Flavor is intense but enjoyable. It's got all of the classic tripel elements like spice (pepper and clove), mild tropical fruit (banana and pineapple), and complex yeast esters. The only problem is that they don't all seem to be in unison the way the best versions are.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied with big champagne-like carbonation.

Overall a tasty tripel but not perfection. It's lacking in balance and overly carbonated for me. (686 characters)